The Wolfden by Lillah Lawson

Author:Lillah Lawson [Lawson, Lillah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Parliament House

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“Elvin,” I said, feeling woozy and nauseated. “Uncle El. Your dad. He’s the one who has Lee, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Roberta said, two spots of color appearing on her tanned cheeks. “I think so.”

“How on earth did Elvin get involved in all this?” I asked.

“He’s Guthrie’s brother.” I could hear the shame in Roberta’s voice.

I swallowed hard. I could hardly believe what I was hearing, and yet every single bit of it rang true. I knew it, deep in my bones, in my blood. Roberta had said from the beginning that Guthrie was her uncle, that Lee was her cousin; I just hadn’t tied it together. I closed my eyes and took a long, shuddering breath.

“Just tell it to me straight, all of it,” I said, my voice sounding weird to my own ears. “Just tell me how it all happened, and I’ll believe you.”

“Okay.” Roberta shot a quick glance in Mama’s direction and sighed. “So, here’s the deal. My dad—Elvin—has always been really interested in magic. Growing up, Harry Houdini was his hero. He and his siblings would do magic shows in the backyard, and they dreamed of growing up and being magicians.” She traced the pattern on the bowl of popcorn. “Life had other plans, I guess. I never met my grandparents, but from what I’ve heard, they were not nice people. They beat their kids and did all sorts of other awful things. They starved them and…and other, worse stuff.” She shuddered. “It got so bad that the department of family services got involved and took them all away when my dad was a teenager.”

“That’s awful,” I said. My folks hadn’t exactly been parents of the year—far from it—but thankfully, I couldn’t claim any real abuse, other than a little neglect, and being exposed to their drinking. That had been bad enough.

Roberta nodded. “All of them—Daddy, his brothers and his little sister—were separated, and sent to different homes. The way he tells it, Dad bummed around from foster family to foster family, sometimes going to school, sometimes working odd jobs, until he was of age. Then he moved to South Georgia, got a job as a janitor at the local high school, and rented a trailer. He met my mom and they got married pretty young—he wasn’t even twenty when they tied the knot and she was barely eighteen. and already a single mom—to my brother, Jorge—when they met.” She smiled sadly. “I think she was desperate to find someone to take care of her. So they got hitched. Had me a year later. Then my mom died when I was six months old.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, my hand reaching out to hers instinctively. “How did she pass?”

“Drug overdose,” Roberta said, her face a little gray. Mama winced and went to light another cigarette. Roberta took a shaking breath and went on. “My dad raised me. The first few years were pretty okay. We never had any money and I had to grow up way too fast—he had me doing chores when I should have been out playing, stuff like that.

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